Rest in music

No moderations in life — violinist Balabhaskar Chandran considered that as a policy he stuck to always — in life and ironically, in death. The musician had once revealed in a TV interview that he loved everything at its extreme, only then would it be a complete experience!  Sadly, nothing more extreme could have happened to the Balabhaskar family who met with an accident a week ago. In the car crash on the way back from temple visit at Thrissur, Balabhaskar and wife Lakshmi lost their two-year-old daughter Tejaswini, who was born after 15 years of wait. A week later, on Tuesday, as Balabhaskar succumbed to injuries, Lakshmi is still battling for life, unaware of her family’s fate.

Hailing from a musically affluent family, Balabhaskar was introduced to tunes and notations at a tender age of three by his uncle and guru B. Sasikumar. Since then, there was no looking back for little Bala.  A performer since the age of 12 and a music composer at 17, when the college boy composed music for three songs, which he wanted to release as an album but was eventually selected for a movie — Mangalyapallaku, Bala was the youngest music director in Malayalam film industry back then.However, his tryst with violin shot him to fame and earned him a strong fan base.  His official baby steps into the industry were through the albums Ninakkai and Aadyamai released by East Coast.

Bala, who later concentrated on stage performances and fusion albums, doesn’t have too many movies in his credit. Director Rajeev Nath, whose Moksham saw Bala as the composer, recalls that despite being very young, Bala knew his craft inside out. “He had a strong foundation in Carnatic music and therefore he knew how to get the technicalities correct. I have no words to express my pain about his demise. It is the death of a one of a kind talent, which is not going to happen again,” he adds. Known as the face of fusion music, Balabhaskar made the genre popular in Kerala at a time people were not familiar with musicals. He naturally became the most favourite pick for stage shows. His fusion albums featured big names like Ustad Zakhir Hussain, Sivamani, Louis Banks, Vikku Vinayakram, Hariharan, Mattannoor Sankarankutty, Ranjit Barot, Fazal Qureshi, Stephen Devassy and Shankar Mahadevan among others.

Sachin Warrier, one of the popular singers of the young block, says, “I think that a musician becoming the face of a musical instrument is very rare and Balabhaskar has attained that pinnacle. Music lovers around the globe have his name on their lips at the mere mention of violin. That, I consider, is his biggest achievement. In spite of all the love and success, he never used to sit back and relax. He felt responsible to the people who loved his music and always strived to come up with more different works. However, amid all the recognitions, Baluchettan remained grounded and had the longing to learn and live up to the expectations of his fans.”

The musician also shared a close relationship with pianist and musician Stephen Devassy; the duo had performed together at numerous venues. Stephen had visited Balabhaskar at the hospital, hours before he passed away, and had posted a video on his official Facebook page, saying that Bala was gaining consciousness and that he could see him trying to move his lips. Expressing grief, singer Unni Menon, who too has associated with the musical genius, feels that the accident could have been avoided if Bala was a bit careful. “I would say that people like Balabhaskar are rare talents and such a tragic end to his life is very unfortunate. But there is nothing we can do now other than to mourn his death. The vacuum created in the world of music is huge,” he adds.

Balabhaskar had always felt responsible to those people who call him a maestro and had said that his life will be a dedication towards becoming one. An untimely halt at 40 leaves behind unfinished notes of a stellar musical journey, but the name Balabhaskar will be etched as the violin maestro in the hearts of his fans, forever